Tips for visiting a you-pick strawberry farm with kids

Tuesday after school we visited the Care of the Earth Community Farm to pick strawberries. It’s the Community Supported Agriculture group that we belong to, led by Farmer Megan.

With my major canning done, this experience was for the kids. What strawberries they don’t eat, I’ll freeze to make smoothies.

When taking children to a you-pick farm there is a few things you can do to be prepared.

• Know if the farm offers take-away containers to hold your strawberries. In question, it’s always nice to bring small baskets you know are the appropriate size for children to manage. I lined ours with parchment paper to save them for strawberry juice. And two were reused from a previous farm that provided plastic baskets.
• Make sure everyone wears sturdy play shoes because the ground and grass can be hard to walk through on a farm.
• Have an idea how far away you have to park the car from the strawberry field, and be mindful of long walking times through thick grass and hot sun with small children. This may sound petty. But I’ve learned from experience that a two acre walk across a farm in the blazing sun is a lot to ask of a small child, at least on the return trip once the excitement wears off.
• For babies and new walkers, a backpack carrier works great.
• Take lots of water. For four kids I filled up a big glass pitcher with a spout and set it up on the porch for the kids to refill their own glasses of water. For pre-school aged children, this is great fun in itself.
• Don’t plan on picking enough for any major canning projects. Enjoy the time with the kids. Take pictures and make sure they understand which strawberries are ripe for picking – especially with toddlers. On our trip we picked a total of five pounds.
• If you are looking to yield 25 pounds of strawberries for canning or freezing for later, see if you can work out a deal with the farmer ahead of time to pick for you, and pay a little extra.

Below are some pictures of our time on the farm.

Like so often with our family, we took an extra friend along for the fun. Because you know, once you have three kids what’s one more? More fun. Right?

I’m not sure which was more exciting for the kids this time – picking strawberries or visiting the one-week-old baby turkeys!

Now take your kids to pick strawberries! They will love it. And there is nothing tastier than a sweet, ripe strawberry.